Islamic world

The terms Islamic world and Muslim world commonly refer to the Islamic community, known as the Ummah, meaning all who adhere to the beliefs, politics and laws of Islam, or the societies in which Islam is practised. In a modern geopolitical sense they refer to countries where Islam is widespread, although there are no agreed criteria for inclusion, and Muslim-majority countries is a common alternative phrase. Its history spans about 1,400 years and includes the Islamic Golden Age, when the arts, science, medicine, philosophy, law, economics and technology developed. Early Muslim conquests led to the Umayyad Caliphate across Asia, Africa and Europe, and most of the region came under European colonial rule in the modern era. The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation has 57 member states. As of 2020 about 1.8 billion people, over a quarter of humanity, were Muslim, most of them Sunni, with Indonesia the largest Muslim-majority country and South Asia home to the largest share of Muslims.